Short Takes

These days, calling Iris Apfel for a telephone interview is like crossing the main level of Grand Central Station at rush hour. The subject of a new documentary by the late Albert Maysles, Apfel has been rendered by his recent death the primary source for comment on the film, “Iris,” which opens April 29 at Film Forum (209 W. Houston St.; [212] 727-8110) and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema (Broadway and 62nd Street; [212] 757-0359).

During an event sponsored several years ago by WNET, New York City’s public television station, Sylvia Poyta, a longtime supporter of the station, took Neal Shapiro, WNET’s president, aside for a short, quiet conversation.

Among the many questions with many answers about Jewish prayer is whether on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day (April 23 this year), one adds the special prayers of praise and thanksgiving, Hallel, and/or omits the prayers of serious supplication, Tachanun.

To many children of Holocaust survivors, bridging the gulf between their own lives and their parents’ horrific wartime experiences seems virtually impossible. But opening in New York next week are two one-person plays that attempt to do just that by both elucidating and strengthening the bond between the playwrights and the memories of their parents.